Catharine Johannson

The Results

2008-07-13T21:54:00.003-05:00

I'm quite surprised, but both ant removal methods seem to have worked. The first day, only the boiling water seemed to have any effect. There were still a few ants, but they appeared to be stragglers. Over on the icing sugar and baking soda hill, the ants seemed to be happy as could be. For the next two days I repeated the boiling water treatment on the "boiling water" anthill. Then on the next weekend I dug out the place where the ants had been, laid some new soil, organic fertilizer and grass seed and I've got a nice little patch of lawn where there was once an ant hill.

After the icing sugar and baking soda didn't work the first day, I thought I would need to use boiling water on the other anthill. I didn't really feel like dealing with it, so I just left it alone. On the weekend, when I dug out the old anthill in the place where I had used boiling water, I looked at the anthill that had been subjected to icing sugar and baking soda, and there were no ants there! It had worked, after all. It just took a few days.

I do still question my need to conform to mainstream concepts of lawn beauty. Why can't I just share my lawn with the ants? As I said to my little niece yesterday, "I'm a lover, not a fighter."

An experiment in ant removal

2008-06-19T09:44:00.002-05:00

My yard has ants. Also dandelions. Many, many dandelions. We'll deal with that later.

There are two anthills on the front lawn, one in the back yard. Now, my parents always told me that boiling water was the solution to ant removal. After consulting that ever reliable source: the internet search, it seems that many people agree with this non-toxic method of ant removal. There is also much support for an icing sugar/baking soda combination.

I have tried both. One on each anthill in the front yard. I have my doubts that either method will work, but, hey, what the heck.

The Silver Whistle - Sileas

2008-04-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

Lego Darth Vader

2007-11-30T15:50:00.000-06:00

This is hilarious, but be warned - Vader uses the "F" word...

SOA Pilgrimage

2007-10-23T14:18:00.001-05:00

It's Official

2007-08-11T00:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm a candidate for the Federal Council of the Green Party of Canada. What I learned from last year is that most people are not plugged in at all. They make their decision entirely based on the write-up and the photo.

Well, dear reader, you have taken the time to visit my blog. I salute you!

If you vote for me, I will always answer your phone calls and emails. Quickly.

If you have any questions, please ask. I mean it.

internet perils

2007-04-28T01:12:00.000-05:00

When I joined the Green Party several years ago, I regularly told people that I was a former New Democrat. But as I met more and more Greens from various political backgrounds, I noticed that if someone told me which party they had belonged to in the past it immediately influenced my perception of that person. So I stopped volunteering the information. Of course, I told people if they asked.

Now, it turns out that a political button collector in Ontario has decided to put his button collection on-line. And his collection includes 2 handmade buttons from my campaign to be President of the New Democratic Youth of Canada in 1997. There were under 100 made, so the whole thing is kind of weird and creepy.

Many of my various adventures have made their way into the public domain, making me really wonder if I should have a public blog.

EMay is quite brilliant!

2007-04-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

For years the NDP have been trying to find messaging that will counter strategic voting. It is why New Democrats love Tommy Douglas' story of Mouseland. It is why, for years, New Democrats have distributed buttons that say "Liberal, Tory, same old story".

It doesn't work because voters don't buy it. The Liberals wouldn't have eviscerated the Law Reform Commission. The Liberals kept Canada out of the Iraq War. The Liberals signed Kyoto. There is a difference between Liberals and Conservatives. There are also a lot of similarities, but voters are not stupid and recognize that there is a difference.

So how is a third party like the NDP or the Green Party supposed to counter the traditional stategic voting message "The Tories are coming! The Tories are coming! They're going to destroy the country! You must vote Liberal to save Canada!"?

Well, here's an idea. Admit that voters see a difference between Liberals and Conservatives. Ask them to vote Green in Central Nova and Liberal in Saint-Laurent--Cartierville.

When Elizabeth announced that she was running in Central Nova, I figured that she had a good shot. I have the advantage of actually knowing Elizabeth and also having seen the positive reaction to her in London North Centre (where she didn't have nearly the ground support that she has in NS). Now it is hers to lose.

Bill C-31 is stupid!

2007-04-04T10:37:00.000-05:00

OK, I don't have time to really get into it, but Bill C-31 is extremely stupid. First of all, it's making it harder for people to vote - especially people who are already likely to be disenfranchised. Also, putting date-of-birth on the voters list is a really, really, really bad idea. DOB is one of the pieces of information very useful for identity thiefs.

This year, when the Canada Revenue Agency asked me on my income tax form if I authorize them to give my info to Elections Canada - I said "No".

Manitoba Organizer

2007-02-24T17:46:00.000-06:00

The GPC is hiring a Manitoba Organizer. Anyone interested, send your resume to Sharon Labchuk.

***

MANITOBA ORGANIZER

Job type: Contract, part-time
Job Title: Manitoba Organizer
Location: home office in Manitoba or GPC office in Winnipeg
Remuneration: $700 - $1,000 per month
Languages: English required
Date posted: 20 February 2007
Closing date: 27 February 2007

The Green Party of Canada is seeking a Manitoba Organizer to begin work immediately. This is a part-time (13 hours/week), contract position. Remuneration is dependent upon experience.

JOB DESCRIPTION
The Manitoba Organizer will be a member of a national organizing team working at the grassroots level to ensure Electoral District Associations in Manitoba are formed and receive ongoing support. Organizers help to identify and register quality candidates and provide support so that campaigns are run as effectively as possible. Some travel within the province is necessary. Hours of work vary but often include weekends and evenings. During an election, organizers are required to work long hours.

QUALIFICATIONS
Previous experience as a political organizer, candidate, campaign manager, or campaign worker is strongly recommended. Experience designing and delivering workshops and some familiarity with Elections Canada regulations is preferred. Applicants should have good networking skills, and be resourceful and capable of working without close supervision. Organizers must like working with people and have the capacity to maintain friendly and co-operative relationships with party members and the public. The ability to work well under pressure is vital during an election.

Applicants must not be a member of another federal political party.

HOW TO APPLY
Email resume to slabchuk-at-greenparty.ca.
For more information please call Sharon Labchuk at 902-621-0719.

We thank all candidates for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Applications received will be screened based on information provided. Please ensure you include all relevant details about your qualifications for this position.

Missing CD

2007-02-06T13:03:00.000-06:00

Every Monday at noon, the SCM leads peace prayers at the St. John's College chapel at the U of M. I was there yesterday and one of the songs was by Pat Mayberry. It reminded me that my copy of Pat's first CD, Voice to Voice, has gone missing. I have looked everywhere for it, and I just can't find it. It really upset me because I thought that it would be really tough to find another copy of the independently produced CD. I bought my copy when I lived in Ottawa and attended the same church as Pat Mayberry, First United. But guess what? I can order another copy on the internet! Sometimes the global village does come in handy.

Officially Anglican

2007-02-01T13:50:00.000-06:00

I've been an Anglican for a while, but on January 14 I received the apostolic rite of confirmation. This was actually my second confirmation. I was confirmed in the United Church about a lifetime ago, but the UC doesn't have bishops, so I did it again, this time with a bishop. Did I ever think I would join an episcopal church? Nope. Never. But somehow it happened. This is me with the Right Reverend Donald Phillips, Bishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land, and Rev. Dr. Cathy Campbell. The Bishop's hat (or as wikipedia calls it, "traditional, ceremonial head-dress") is called a mitre.

Cathy is the author of an amazing book about food and justice called Stations of the Banquet. While I'm linking to books, I'll let you know about another amazing author, Rev. Sharon Moon. Sharon was my minister when I lived in Ottawa and attended First United Church. She is awesome. I keep meaning to send Sharon a copy of Cathy's book and give Cathy a copy of Sharon's book. It's on my list of things to do, but pretty far down.

Belated post

2007-02-01T13:42:00.000-06:00

Hey folks. I have been super busy, so haven't had a chance to keep up with the blog. I was planning to post about the PM moving Ambrose to Intergovernmental Affairs. That was almost a month ago, so there you go.

My cute spouse got a copy of Paul Well's book on the 2006 election for Xmas. I was reading it around the same time Ambrose got shuffled out of Environment. "What the hell is Harper doing?" I thought. Then I remembered that Intergovernmental Affairs is run out of the PMO and the Minister usually isn't included in any important decisions.

Political Parties

2006-12-13T12:37:00.000-06:00

The Liberal Leadership Convention really has me thinking about the nature of political parties. Parties each tend to have their own culture and it is interesting how perceived notions of the Liberal Party were defied by the result. Really thanks to this guy. Although here's an interesting story about how Martha caused the upset. Well, even if it's not true, Martha still caused the upset by going to Dion. At that point the only thing that could have saved Kennedy was for Dryden to come over, but Dryden was a &*$%# and went to Rae instead.

Priorities

2006-12-01T10:09:00.000-06:00

OK, I've got an exam on Wednesday, so I should be studying but I really can't help myself. I'm doing some practice questions, but I've still got CPAC on in the background and I keep getting distracted. My prediction? I think it will be Kennedy.

London

2006-11-25T20:50:00.000-06:00

Well, here I am in London after a full day of travel, web site messing, some awesome homemade soup, and all the other great stuff the campaign has to offer. What a great campaign office. Great folks. Monday is going to be fun!

Remembrance Day

2006-11-11T20:53:00.000-06:00

This will have to be a quick post becuase I've got balsamic chard simmering.

This afternoon hubby and I went to see Martin Scorsese's latest flick, The Departed. Well, it wasn't that good, but before the movie there was a preview for the soon-to-be-released Bobby.

Now, here is where I upset all my progressive friends when I say I'm not a big fan of Bobby. If you look at the way he and Hoffa hated each other, it is so clearly a question of class. Well, I'm not a big Trudeau fan either, but I guess sometimes a person just captures the imagination of people (or a cohort, as Michael Marshall would say).

There was also a preview for The Good Shepherd, the story of the creation of the CIA. I may be able to get hubby out to that one. He hates going to the movies and I would spend every afternoon watching a matinee if I could.

Wednesday morning

2006-11-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

Yes, I haven't posted for a while - too busy volunteering and working on a massive, horrible assignment for a course I'm taking. I can't believe it's November already! My assignment is due today, but then I have to start studying for the exam.

I wish I was in London North Centre for the by-election excitement. Phil Spidle is heading up phone canvass for Elizabeth and has a blog on her site at https://www.elizabethmay.ca/blog/33. If you can do some phoning, let him know.

London North Centre

2006-10-24T10:56:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth May is running in London North Centre. Special thanks to Devon Rowcliffe for putting together a blog graphic. I would love to be in London for the campaign! EMay is so awesome, I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.

Mercer site

2006-10-19T21:58:00.000-05:00

I usually work evenings, including this Tuesday, so I missed the Mercer Report and Elizabeth May cutting down a tree. (Just so you know, the tree was already dead.)

Well, I am delighted to report that the EMay segment is available on the CBC website at http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/.

Also, on Saturday I bought a guitar. Exciting times.

Pirates! Yar!

2006-10-06T22:13:00.000-05:00

My boss lent me a DVD of the first Pirates of the Carribean movie, which for some reason I never saw. Last week she went to see the sequel, and I told her that I saw the sequel, but not the original. Well, turns out she has the original on DVD and lent it to me so I can procrastinate this weekend watching movies. Yay!

Also, Trailer Park Boys was released today. To the theatre, mateys!

a Thursday post

2006-10-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

I'm glad the long weekend is coming, because it's been a long week. I was thinking that I don't have anything Green to blog about, but that's not true. The Winnipeg North EDA AGM is set for Sunday, October 29 at 1 PM at the GPM office above the Pantages (that's #202 - 180 Market Avenue (at Main)). Also, the GPM is holding a fall supper on the 13th at the Ukrainian Labour Temple. Only $10. Contact Gerald for tickets (fundraising-at-greenparty.mb.ca) or call the office.

Elizabeth May on The Big Picture

2006-09-30T08:56:00.000-05:00

My mom is in town for a few days. She had to come in for an eye appointment and is staying for the weekend to attend a Kairos event. (Their current campaign is called Water: Life before Profit)

So my mom went for lunch with some old friends, one of whom said that Elizabeth May was great on The Big Picture the other day.

Now, the thing about having a public blog is that it's public. So if someone from HelloCoolWorld wanted to contact bloggers who might be interested in seeing Elizabeth May on The Big Picture, they would likely find me. And they did. Chrissy did.

To tell you the truth, I almost deleted the email because the subject line was "Chrissy has sent you an email!" so I assumed that it was spam. My public email address is a yahoo address, and I like to go through my email one by one. Yahoo has a feature where instead of the "delete" button you can hit the "spam" button and it will give you a little message that says "Thanks! Every message you report helps SpamGuard perform better." And I get a great sense of satisfaction hitting the spam button. Although sometimes the email builds up and I have to just do a mass delete of what I'm pretty sure is spam.

Chrissy also told me that "The CBC is also linking blogs that are talking about the show to their blog trakker, should you be interested." Well, I don't really have time to look into that, but good for them.

For those of you who, like me, missed the show, it is being rebroadcast on Newsworld on Sunday, October 1 at 7 PM Eastern. I am going to tape it so I can fast forward through Glen Murray. I heard he rambled and rambled and said nothing, which sounds about right.

I am still completely disgusted that Paul Martin appointed Glen Murray to the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy after the Standing Committee on the Environment voted against it. Bob Mills and Nathan Cullen were both against the appointment.

analytics

2006-09-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

So, I found out that if I want to increase the number of hits on my blog, I just need to talk about Gerard Kennedy. Or Joy Kogawa. And some strange person out there is googling "johannson" and showing up here. The internet is fascinating. Or, as Homer Simpson says, "The internet? Is that thing still around?"

I started this blog to muse about Green Party stuff, but these days most of my volunteer time is taken up by my new role as Treasurer for the North American Region of the World Student Christian Federation. Whoops, now I've done it. I've outed myself as a person of faith. Well, I know Chris Tindal and Cameron Wigmore won't hold it against me, so what the hell.

When I get around to finishing the latest book I've been reading, I may just muse about it here. I need to finish it soon so I can move on to Colossians Remixed.

ahh, the senate...

2006-09-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

I had a nice Sunday today. The high point of my day was an argument with Gerard Kennedy on senate reform. I told him that, since he was from Manitoba and had lived in Alberta, I was disappointed with his answer on senate reform at the Vancouver debate. (Yes, I always try to catch the Liberal leadership deabtes on CPAC - I also watched most of the NDP convention two weekends ago. I'm a junkie. I admit it.)

Some Greens like Stéphane Dion, especially for his work at COP 11. I respect Dion, but I also respect Kennedy for his work as Education Minister in Ontario. The guy can get the job done and that's saying something.

Anyway, unlike Ignatieff, Kennedy is not in favour of opening up the constitution. And there can't be significant senate reform without opening up the constitution. So Kennedy figures there's no point in just tinkering, and without opening up the constitution Alberta would still have less seats than New Brunswick (for example). So if Alberta elected a senator, you wouldn't appoint him or her? "No," says Kennedy without batting an eye. I almost fell off my chair. It was clearly the wrong answer (for me), but he was unequivocal.

We had to agree to disagree, but I figure if he'll tell me straight what he thinks, even when I clearly disagree with him, I figure he's dishing the straight goods on what he thinks about Afghanistan. And the Globe and Mail is right. The guy has charisma.

So what's the GPC policy on senate reform? The following was part of the 1997 election platform, which was adopted as official party policy at the 1998 convention.

1997 - Senate Reform
a- At present, the Canadian senate is little better than a plush retirement home for the beneficiaries of government patronage.
b- While some Canadians see the senate as a waste of taxpayers' money, others seek a renewal of the senate based on its original role as a "chamber of sober second thought".
A- A Green Party Government would hold a referendum either by preferential ballot or a series of run-offs giving Canadians the opportunity to set the direction senate reform should take.
B- While constitutional amendments may be necessary to complete and formalize changes to the senate, virtually all plans for senate reform could commence without constitutional change. The proposed referendum would include but not be limited to the following choices:
B1- Abolition of the Senate:
c- A yes to this option would result in an immediate moratorium on filling any senate vacancies and strong encouragement for sitting senators to retire.
d- This would lead to a gradual reduction in the size of the senate while the government negotiated for a constitutional amendment to abolish the senate completely.
B2- Election of the Senate:
e- A yes to this option would result in the government filling senate vacancies through province-wide senate elections held concurrently with provincial elections.
-- In the event of more than one senate seat becoming available, seats would be apportioned based on proportional representation.
-- The government would negotiate for a constitutional amendment creating an elected senate on a similar model to the Australian senate which selects its members in at-large state elections by proportional representation.
B3- First Nations Senate:
f- A yes to this option would result in the government filling senate vacancies by appointing hereditary first nations leaders to fill any vacancies.
-- These appointments would be chosen from a lists forwarded by the Assembly of First Nations.
-- The government would negotiate for a constitutional amendment that converted the senate into an institution similar to the British House of Lords but retaining the senate's historic right of veto.